Fonds consists of negative images of petroglyphs largely from the Pacific west coast of North America. Most of the images are from sites located in British Columbia, but there are also images from sites in Washington State, New Mexico, and other areas of the United States and Mexico. There are also images of artifacts, masks, totem poles, wood carvings, and graveyards. Images of family travels, landscapes, wild animals, and house cats are interspersed within the collection.

Fonds consists of eight slides of totem poles being raised in the Haida Village at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The slides are dated May, 1962. The photographs were taken by George Szanto, the son-in-law of Geoffrey Andrew who was the Dean and Deputy President of UBC from 1947 to 1962.

The totem poles represented in the images were carved by Haida artist Bill Reid and 'Namgis artist Doug Cranmer. They were originally situated at UBC's Totem Park. They are now located on the grounds behind the Museum of Anthropology, and modelled on a 19th century Haida village.

The fonds consists of records created and/or accumulated by Sawyer, predominately during his time as a professor and as a researcher at the University of British Columbia. Presently, there are two series in this fonds reflecting Sawyer’s research on the artifacts of Northwest Coast First Nation communities, including the: Tlingit; Haida; Tsimshian; Gitxsan; Nisga’a; Kwakwaka’wakw (formerly Kwakiutl); Nuxalk; Nuu-chah-nulth (formerly Nootka); and Coast Salish First Nations. The series contains slides, scrapbooks, photographs, textual records, and ephemera.

Fonds consists of slides taken by Douglas Routley in the late 1950's on the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus. The slides feature a longhouse and totem poles. They were taken when Routley and his wife visited UBC in the late 1950s.